


Conservation

by MiniNephthys



Category: 1bitHeart (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 11:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4875757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikado has nothing left but sense data and the ability to process it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conservation

There are many laws governing time travel, but the laws of the normal world do not cease to apply once you hop into a time machine. Many such laws involve conservation: of mass, of energy, of dictating that once you have something it cannot suddenly just disappear. It has to go somewhere within an isolated system.

Mikado, let’s call him that, travelled on the time machine back to his correct time, along with Misane. When they arrived, Misane found that he wasn’t there with her, and assumed that history wrote him out of existence.

Right, but not quite right.

The Nanashi that grew up into Mikado grew up into some other kind of Nanase, and the world was not meant to accommodate two Nanases hanging around. Even so, it would be impossible to completely annihilate Mikado from the universe, even if it was easy to write him out of people’s memories.

It was easier to just change him into something that could no longer have any real effect on the world. Something still hanging onto consciousness, but only that. The world usually takes the simplest route when it comes to dealing with time travel shenanigans.

Mikado has nothing left but sense data and the ability to process it. He can still watch as another Nanase lives his life, but better. He can only assume that that’s his reward and reassurance: he’ll know for himself that the future has been improved.

At the same time, it does make one feel rather powerless, doesn’t it?

He tries a few things. Possessing inanimate objects is a no go; he can’t even nudge the tiniest dust speck. So is influencing other people’s thoughts, though he tries all kinds of thoughts from ‘hello’ to ‘ducks wearing silly hats’. For now, it seems that he’s well and truly an audience member, with no means left of participation in the story.

He hangs around Misane and Nanase, watching their story unfold. He has little interest in anyone else, and he probably will always be that way. He almost certainly will, with no one able to change him any longer.

When the two of them are happy, he’s glad. When one of them is sad, or crying, or curled up in their bed and lonely, he thinks as soothingly as he can in their general direction: shhh. Shhhhh. You’ll be alright.

If they calm down some after he thinks that, it’s only a coincidence. After all, he can’t influence the living world anymore.

Mikado does not believe in immortality. If every deceased human being were still around in a conscious form, he would surely brush up against one of them by now, each one following those people in the living world who had their interest. His best guess is that they exist like this for a time until they’re satisfied, and then fade into some other state of being.

Is he satisfied? Almost: he has just one desire left. When this world’s Nanase has lived out his life as well, he would like to see if it’s possible to say hello, and goodbye.


End file.
